High speed printer drum with print plate mounting means



. 21, 1967 c. J. ANTONUCCI 3,353,481

HIGH SPEED PRINTER DRUM WITH PRINT PLATE MOUNTING MEANS Filed Nov. 27, .1964 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 i za 3/ 25 INVENTOR. div/17m J44 f0A 1/c'c/ ATTORNEY Nov. 21, 1967 c. J. ANTONUCCI 3,353,481

HIGH SPEED PRINTER DRUM WITH PRINT PLATE MOUNTING MEANS Filed Nov. 27, 1964 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 iiiii-iiiiiil F/Cf/O. 66

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c. J. ANTONUCCI Nov. 21, 1967 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 OOOOOOOOOOO oooooooooooooo o OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO To To To 0 OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO ooooooooooooooooo R Y 2 w J 0m hm M A m United States Patent 3,353,481 7 HIGH SPEED PRINTER DRUM WITH PRINT PLATE MOUNTING MEANS Carmine J. Antonucci, Uniondale, N.Y., assignor to Potter Instrument Company, Inc., Plainview, N.Y., a corporation of New York Fiied Nov. 27, 1964, Ser. No. 416,192 8 Claims. (Cl. 101-93) This invention, generally, relates to high speed printers and, more particularly, to a print type assembly for use in such high speed printers, and this application is a continuation-in-part of a co-pending application Ser. No. 201,114, filed June 8, 1962, entitled High Speed Printer Drum and assigned to the same assignee as this invention and now abandoned.

In high speed printer apparatus, it is customary to move paper past a plurality of print hammers which are fired selectively in accordance with logic feed to the printer from external circuitry, and the type which is imprinted on the paper by the hammers is moved past the printing station. The type, customarily, is formed by etching the surface of a massive drum or by forming the type as individual links on a moving chain or belt.

In the drum form of type carrier, it is necessary to remove the entire drum from the printer and substitute another drum if it is desired to change the print type. Removal of the drum is a diflicult task since the drum necessarily must be mounted for rotation in a non-variable position, which means that the mounting assembly for the drum is relatively complicated.

Accordingly, a principal object of the present invention is to provide a new and improved print type assembly uniquely adapted for operation with a high speed printer wherein the print type may be replaced easily and readily.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a structural arrangement for a high speed printer type assembly wherein the type may be manufactured separately from the principal carrier.

In accordance with the invention, a print type assembly which is uniquely adapted for use with a high speed printer includes a first carrier member formed of a relatively thin flexible material, and the type elements are formed integrally in a predetermined pattern on the flexible material. If desired, the material may be plastic or metal. A second carrier member is formed of a substantially rigid material, and in a preferred form of the invention, is a drum.

Suitable means is provided to fixedly hold the first carrier member relative to the second carrier member so that the type elements may be moved past a printing position.

Further objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent from a reading of the following detailed description of a preferred form thereof taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a partialview in perspective of a print type drum showing the detachable feature of the print type in accordance with the invention;

FIG. 2 is a view in cross section showing one means for attaching opposite edges of the type element-carrier to the drum;

FIG. 3 is a view of one end of a type drum, partly in 5 FIG. 6 is a view of a print drum showing a plurality of hammers and actuating circuit therefor;

FIG. 7 shows an enlarged, fragmentary portion of the print drum and hammer of FIG. 6;

FIG. 8 is a view similar to FIG. 7 showing the armate surface of the hammer head in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 9 is a plan view of the detachable, flexible, print type carrier shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 10 is a greatly enlarged portion as indicated in FIG. 9;

' FIG. 11 is a greatly enlarged portion as indicated in FIG. 9;

FIG. 12 is a greatly enlarged portion as indicated in FIG. 9;

FIG. 13 is a greatly enlarged portion as indicated in FIG. 9; and

FIG. 14 is an end view in elevation of a portion of the flexible print type carrier shown in FIG. 9.

Referring now to FIG. 1 of the drawings, a print type assembly 10, in accordance with the invention, is formed of a first carrier 11 in the form of, for example, a relatively thin sheet of metal or plastic and a second carrier member 12 formed of a substantially rigid material to develop rotational inertia about an axis 13.

Heretofore, type members have been formed directly in the surface 14 of the drum 12, and it has been necessary to replace the entire drum when it is desired to change the type characters. However, in accordance with the invention, it will be. necessary now to change only the outer, thin, flexible type carrier 11.

The type carrier 11 has type characters 15 formed integrally therewith by any suitable process, such as etching, and it is contemplated that the necessary codes be formed directly on the same carrier 11, such codes being indicated by the columns 16, 17 and 18.

The print characters 15 are alpha-numeric in the form of A, B, Us, a plurality of As being formed in spaced apart positions along a line substantially parallel to the axis 13, and Bs are formed in the next line adjacent thereto, and so forth around the periphery of the carrier 11.

The timing bars in the column 16 are for clock purposes and are formed at each position occupied by a character 15. The column 17 includes timing bars for coding appropriately to identify the particular character in the row, and the coding bars in the column 18 perform any one of several useful purposes.

These code bars may be formed in any desired manner, such as that shown in FIG. 5 wherein grooves 19 are etched at the appropriate positions and, subsequently, these grooves are filled with a metallic composition, such as powdered iron.

The marks indicated by the numeral 20 are positioned approximately 90 relative to those in the columns 16, 17 and 18 and are used primarily to align with matching marks along the opposite edge of the flexible carrier 11 during the positioning of the flexible carrier 11 on the drum 12. In addition, an aperture 21 is formed in at least two positions on the carrier 11 to receive pins 22 (only one of which is visible in FIG. 1) for alignment purposes.

While any suitable means may be used to attach the flexible carrier 11 to the drum 12, one means is indicated by a groove 23 along the longitudinal surface of the drum 12 to receive an edge 24 of the flexible carrier 11. For example, one form of attachment of the flexible carrier 11 to the drum 12 is by means of filling the groove 23 with an eutectic metal such as Cerro-Tru, a trademark of Cerro Metals Company, and is a lead-bismuth alloy with a melting point of 136 R, which means that it may be melted by pouring hot water over it. This may be convenient for easy removal of one sheet to permit Changing the type.

As shown in FIG. 2 of the drawings, a double jawed clip 25 is provided to grip opposite edges of the flexible carrier 11 and hold the carrier 11 to the drum 12. A first jaw 26 has a gripping surface along the edge 27 to grip one edge of the flexible carrier 11 and, by turning the screw 28 which passes through a clearance hole in the jaw 26 for threading into an opening 29 in the body 30 of the assembly 25, the opposite surface 31 slides along a raised center 32 to grip the flexible carrier 11.

With opposite edges of the carrier 11 gripped between the jaw 26 and a similar jaw 33, a central bolt 34 passing through a clearance hole in the center 32 and threaded in an opening 35 in the drum 12, pulls both ends tightly and holds the flexible carrier 11 to the drum 12.

Of course, with an attachment such as that just described, some time will be consumed in releasing the opposite edges of the flexible carrier 11 in the event it is desired to change type characters. Another and preferred from of attaching the flexible carrier 11 to the drum 12 provides an arrangement permitting quicker changing of the flexible carrier 11.

Referring now to FIG. 3 of the drawings, the drum 12a is similar to the drum 12 shown in FIG. 1 except that the groove 23a has a channel 36 extending inwardly to an axial channel 37 for communicating with an annular groove 38 in a bearing 39. By this arrangement, the drum 12a may be rotated while the groove 23a is in constant communication with the groove 38.

A suitable connection 40 through the bearing 39 provides means for connecting a suitable vacuum pump 41 thereto for drawing a vacuum in the groove 23a. Therefore, by placing the flexible carrier 11 about the drum with opposite edges covering the groove 23a, a vacuum drawn on the groove 23a will hold the flexible carrier 11 in place.

Instead of forming a groove in the drum 12, the drum may be formed of a porous material such as illustrated in FIG. 4 of the drawings by the reference numeral 12b. Therefore, a vacuum drawn axially through an aperture 50 will be drawn through the pores in the drum 12b, the ends of the drum being sealed by a suitable means such as an epoxy resin painted thereon.

While any suitable material may be used to form such a drum, a sintered bronze powder compacted under heat and pressure in accordance with that available from the Chrysler Corporation under their trademark Oilite has been found to be one suitable material. Of course, others are available and may be used if desired.

Referring now to FIG. 6 of the drawings, the numeral 12 identifies a drum similar to the drum shown in FIG. 1 wherein a flexible carrier 11 is affixed to the outer surface thereof. A plurality of printing hammers are indicated generally by the numeral 52, a portion of the head of a hammer 53 being cut away to reveal an adjacent hammer 54. In its retracted, non-printing position, the heads of the hammers 52 provide suitable space between the drum 12 to permit a web 55 to pass therebetween. Printing is effected by energizing a selected electromagnet coil 56 by means of an electrical actuating circuit 57 to attract the armature end 58 of a selected hammer 52, thereby causing the associated head to impact against the Web 55 driving it against a print type on the carrier 11.

An adjustable penetration stop 59 is positioned to absorb most of the impact energy of the hammers 52 to prevent excessive wear of the print type on the carrier 11, and an adjustable stop 60 controls the spacing between the heads of the hammers and the drum, thereby effecting the hammer flight time. Suitable means, such as a spring 61 holds each hammer 52 against the stop 60 when the hammers are not actuated.

FIG. 7 shows an enlarged, fragmentary view of the surface of the drum 12 depicting the print characters in their usual form wherein their outer surface is formed in a straight line requiring the impact surface 62 of the hammer 63 to be straight also. It may be seen immediately that this structural arrangement shows a serious disadvantage in that the impact surface 62 must strike the type character 15 at precisely the instant the two surfaces are parallel, otherwise either the lower half of the type character or the upper half of the type character will not be printed. This is a problem which faced early efforts to form a wrap-around type carrier, but such a carrier in accordance with the present invention has overcome this problem.

As shown in FIG. 8, the outer surface of the type character 15' is curved, and the impact surface 62' on the hammer head is curved also. It is preferred that the curvature of the surface 62' be approximately .015 inch greater than the curvature of the type carrier to compensate for the average thickness of paper, carbon paper, etc. that usually occupies the space between the surface 62' and the type character 15.

Also, it may be seen in FIG. 8 that the dimension of the impact surface 62' in the direction of movement of the type character 15' is approximately 50% greater than the similar dimension of the characters 15'. This fact, taken together with the arcuate surfaces, permits substantial leeway in the exact position of a character during impact, permitting use of far less expensive electronic control circuitry.

FIG. 9 shows a plan view of a flexible type carrier 11 which, in accordance with the inventive structure, may be etched or otherwise formed in a flat position. Early efforts to construct this sheet required that it be etched in a curved position similar to that which it takes when it is wrapped on the drum 12. This was to avoid the development of straight characters depicted in FIG. 7. However, the requirement of etching this sheet on the drum was difiicult and also presented a serious problem of overcutting the characters during the etching process. This developed sharp corners on the characters which either caused excessive wear or tearing of the carbon paper.

A thin flexible type carrier 11 constructed in accordance with the present invention overcomes all of the previously experienced disadvantages, and this is accomplished by constructing this carrier in a manner now to be described in detail.

Referring first to FIG. 10 which is a greatly enlarged fragment adjacent the upper left corner of the carrier 11 shown in FIG. 9, the boundary line 64 is formed of a series of perforations 65 to permit easy separation of any unwanted material. In addition, perforations 66, FIGS. 9 and 12 permit smaller sheets to be developed from larger sheets for making up smaller drums with a maximum of economy.

Several holes 21a, 21b, 21c and 21d are similar to those shown and described in connection with FIG. 1. For a larger drum, the holes 21a and 21d would receive matching pins 22, but if a smaller drum is to be made up, the larger sheet would be separated along the line 66, and the holes 21a and 21b would serve to align the carrier 11 on the drum.

The upper and lower edges of the carrier 11 as viewed in FIG. 9 must be bent at an angle for fitting in the groove 23, FIG. 1, in a precisely prescribed manner so that the spacing between the timing marks 67 is not altered materially. This is accomplished, in accordance with the invention, by developing a line of diamond-shaped openin'gs 68 along the lower edge and diamond-shaped openings 69 along the upper edge. The sharp angles of the diamond-shaped openings permit the carrier 11 to be bent along a very accurate line. It will be noted that the spacing between the line of the openings 69 and the first timing mark 70 is approximately one-half the spacing between the remaining timing marks, shown by the mark 71, and the spacing between the line of the opening 68 and the timing mark 72 is also approximately one-half the spacing between the timing mark 72 and the next adjacent mark 73. Therefore, when the bent ends, represented by the lines 68 and 69, are brought together at the groove 23, the spacing between the mark 70 and the mark 72 will very closely equal the spacing between all of the other timing marks. This is accomplished by forming the surface of the drum 12 very precisely to an accurate circumferential dimension.

While the type carrier 11 shown in FIG. 9 has its surface covered with alpha-numeric type characters in any desired pattern, a few such characters are shown scattered over the sheet for illustration purposes only. The enlarged, fragmentary portions shown in FIGS. 10-13 depict some arbitrary type characters such as arrows, squares, and other shapes, but it will be understood that the invention is not limited to any particular shape of type character that may be formed on the carrier 11.

As seen in FIG. 14, the type carrier 11 is shown in cross section, greatly enlarged, so that the relative thickness of the body material 74 remaining after the etching process is illustrated comparing it proportionally with the type character 15 and the depth of grooves 75 formed laterally, as viewed in FIG. 9, on the reverse side of the carrier 11. The characters 15 are etched in relief so that they are approximately .006 inch above the body surface 74, and the reverse side has etched serrations approximately .008 inch wide and .003 inch deep with a pitch of approximately .020 inch. With this structure, the carrier 11 may be wrapped around a drum 12, and the surface of the type characters 15 will assume the arcuate shape shown in FIG. 8.

An important purpose served by the serrations 75 is the maintenance of the sheet-like member 11 against the drum 12. If the member 11 deviates as much as .0005 inch from a true circle during operation, the resulting imprint will vary in lightness and darkness.

It is to be understood that the above-described arrangements are simply illustrative of the application of the principles of the invention. Numerous other arrangements for providing detachable print type carriers from a more massive, secondary carrier member may be devised by those skilled in the art which will embody the principles of the invention and fall within the spirit and scope of the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. In a high speed printer, a print type assembly comprising,

hammer means including electrical actuating circuitry for effecting impact printing,

a first carrier member formed of a relatively thin flexible material including raised type elements formed integrally therewith in a predetermined pattern for impact printing by said hammer means,

a code on the first carrier member positioned to provide information as to the location and identity of the raised type elements,

a second carrier member formed of a substantially rigid material with relatively high inertia and including means to move the second carrier member relative to said hammer means, and

means to fixedly hold the first carrier member relative to the second carrier member so that the first carrier member is supported during a printing cycle.

2. In a high speed printer, a print type assembly comprising,

hammer means including electrical actuating circuitry for eflecting impact printing,

a first carrier member formed of a relatively thin flexible material including raised type elements formed integrally therewith in a predetermined pattern for impact printing by said hammer means,

a second carrier member incuding a substantially cylindrical drum formed of porous material,

a code on the first carrier member positioned to provide information as to the location and identity of the raised type elements,

means extending axially within the drum to define a substantially centrally located cavity, and

means at opposite ends of said cavity to support the drum rotatably and to provide means for connecting a vacuum source to said cavity,

whereby atmospheric pressure about the periphery of the drum is reduced to fixedly hold the first carrier member relative to the surface of the drum for support of the first carrier member during a printing cycle.

3. In a high speed printer, a print type assembly comprising,

hammer means including electrical actuating circuitry for effecting impact printing,

a first carrier member formed of a relatively thin flexible plastic material including raised type elements formed integrally therewith in a predetermined pattern for impact printing by said hammer means,

code characters formed of magnetic material supported integrally by the first carrier member,

said code characters being arranged in a predetermined pattern for detection by a transducer means,

a second carrier member including a rotatable drum formed of a substantially rigid material, and

means to fixedly hold the first carrier member relative to the drum so that the first carrier member is supported during a printing cycle.

4. In a high speed printer, a print type assembly comprising,

a plurality of hammer means including electrical actuating circuit means,

high inertia drum means having means to support the drum means rotatably a predetermined distance from the hammer means,

a flexible sheet-like member having raised type elements formed integrally on one surface thereof,

means on the opposite surface of said sheet-like member to define a plurality of transverse serrations,

so that the outer surface of said raised type elements develop arcuate curvatures when the sheet-like member is wrapped around the surface of said drum means, and

means to fixedly support the sheet-like member on said drum means.

5. In a high speed printer as set forth in claim 4 wherein said sheet-like member includes a plurality of diamondshaped openings spaced apart along a predetermined bend line.

6. In a high speed printer as set forth in claim 4 wherein said sheet-like member includes a plurality of openings to define a line of separation for developing a smaller sheet-like member to fit a smaller drum means.

7. In a high speed printer as set forth in claim 4 wherein the impact surface of each of said hammer means is arcuate.

8. In a high speed printer as set forth in claim 7 wherein the arcuate surface of the hammer means has a greater radius of curvature than the radius of the arcuate curvatures of said type elements.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,060,082 11/ 1936 Johnson et a1. 101-378 2,590,044 3/1952 Schaller.

2,730,949 1/ 1956 Mitchell.

2,762,297 9/ 6 Baer 101-111 X 2,953,087 9/1960 Ritzerfeld l01132.5 3,013,486 12/1961 Ritzerfeld 101132.5 3,029,920 4/ 1962 Seifreid 101-3 69 X 3,115,092 12/ 1963 Sasaki.

2,919,641 1/ 1960 Pfleger.

2,966,848 1/1961 Faeber 101415.1 3,041,965 7/1962 Sasaki l01111 WILLIAM B. PENN, Primary Examiner. 

1. IN A HIGH SPEED PRINTER, A PRINT TYPE ASSEMBLY COMPRISING, HAMMER MEANS INCLUDING ELECTRICAL ACTUATING CIRCUITRY FOR EFFECTING IMPACT PRINGING, A FIRST CARRIER MEMBER FORMED OF A RELATIVELY THIN FLEXIBLE MATERIAL INCLUDING RAISED TYPE ELEMENTS FORMED INTEGRALLY THEREWITH IN A PREDETERMINED PATTERN FOR IMPACT PRINTING BY SAID HAMMER MEANS, A CODE ON THE FIRST CARRIER MEMBER POSITIONED TO PROVIDE INFORMATION AS TO THE LOCATION AND INDENTITY OF THE RAISED TYPE ELEMENTS, A SECOND CARRIER MEMBER FORMED OF A SUBSTANTIALLY RIGID MATERIAL WITH RELATIVELY HIGH INERTIA AND INCLUDING MEANS TO MOVE THE SECOND CARRIER MEMBER RELATIVE TO SAID HAMMER MEANS, AND MEANS TO FIXEDLY HOLD THE FIRST CARRIER MEMBER RELATIVE TO THE SECOND CARRIER MEMBER SO THAT THE FIRST CARRIER MEMBER IS SUPPORTED DURING A PRINTING CYCLE. 